An important goal in playing sports is to win. Often that means proper play execution, good ball control, good grip and feel, and proper form in the sports fundamentals. Gloves and other types of hand covers are permitted in most sports. Many individuals use gloves to enhance, in some way, their competitive edge. Indeed, gloves have become so important that different types of gloves have been created for different sports. Even within a sport, different types of gloves have been invented to, among other things, maximize performance in specific tasks.
The use of gloves can increase performance especially when the user needs to grip an object like a ball or golf club, for example. Although generally useful, using prior art conventional gloves in some sports can come with significant drawbacks, especially if a user must use their hands to feel in addition to simply grip an object.
In Golf for example, a golfer grabs a golf club with both hands, and must use his or her hands to grip as well as ‘feel’ the golf club throughout the golf swing.
This ability to feel is critical when swinging a golf club. Once a golfer begins a golf swing, the golfer cannot not lose sight of the golf ball until impact occurs with the golf ball. Consequently, the golfer must use tactile sensations on the hands to feel if the golf club is on the correct swing plane throughout the golf swing. Once the golf swing begins, the golfer can no longer look at the golf club and must continue to look at the golf ball.
This need to feel the golf club with a hand has therefore resulted in golfers having to make a difficult choice. Although clearly these players would benefit from added grip enhancers on their hand to increase their control and accuracy, prior art gloves force a golfer to choose between all feel and no feel.
Playing the sport of golf without the help of gloves, however, can also be an inferior choice. Quite often a golfer's success requires swinging the golf club to produce significant club speed, especially when teeing off at the beginning of each hole. As the velocity of the golf club increases, it becomes increasingly more difficult to maintain a tight grip on the club; this is especially true at the point of impact with the golf ball. Virtually all active golfers have chosen therefore to enhance grip capabilities and therefore sacrifice the ability to better feel the golf club.
Consequently, in the field of Golf, to be sure, there exists much prior art in the form of gloves for a golfer's weak (non-dominant) hand. In fact, most active golf players wear a glove on their weak hand, and go without a glove for their strong hand (if one were to go to any major store to buy golf gloves, they would be sold and packaged as a single—one glove—not sold in pairs).
More specifically, the current solution to this insoluble problem has been for virtually all golfers to use one and only one glove. This glove is always placed on the weak hand, leaving the strong hand without a glove.
Golfers have generally decided to wear a glove on their weak-hand, thereby increasing the overall grip of the weak hand but, because prior art weak-hand golf gloves are full fingered and therefore cover all of the user's fingers, the weak hand loses significant tactile capabilities. Cognizant of this major deficiency, most golfers will not wear a glove on their dominant hand, presumably to compensate for the loss of tactile sensation from wearing a glove on their weak-hand.
Although this method of gripping a golf club, by wearing only one golf glove, does provide some tactile sensation, the tactile sensation is limited to only the dominant hand so that the weak hand loses significant tactile sensations. This limitation of only allowing skin contact by the dominant hand has often resulted in several problems such as: difficulty in weak-hand and dominant hand coordination because skin contact between hands is blocked by the glove; difficulty in assessing proper golf club positioning by the weak-hand throughout the golf swing; and difficulty in getting proper feedback from weak-hand sensations if one completes an improper golf swing.
It is no surprise that golfers often have difficulty landing a golf ball on the fairway, even at the highest performance levels, and currently remains an insoluble problem in the sport for amateurs and professionals alike.
There is, therefore, a long-standing need to invent a device—and improve prior art—that could offer some ‘feel’ ability on the weak hand, without significantly diminishing that enhanced grip ability that gloves offer. The result would of course significantly improve the current challenging method of swinging a golf club and increase overall hand control of a golfer's club swing, and greater success in competition.
One very popular golf club grip, for example, is called the interlocking grip. When you use this grip, the forefinger of the golfer's weak-hand is placed over and wrapped around the strong (dominant) hand's pinkie finger. With this grip, clearly the role of the interlocked fingers has less to do with grip and more to do with coordination and feel between the user's two hands to more effectively control the golf swing and to provide greater overall golf swing consistency. There is, therefore, no real need to cover all of the weak hand's forefinger, which touches the dominant hand's interlocked pinkie finger, and uncovering at least part if not all of the forefinger would actually significantly increase overall coordination by allowing the now uncovered portion of the weak hand's forefinger to touch the skin of the dominant hand's pinkie finger. Embodiments of the present invention would therefore offer significant improvements to prior art by offering a glove which leaves at least the fingertips of the forefinger uncovered thereby offering heightened tactile sensations on the weak hand of a user.
The present invention will provide a glove for the weak hand whereby the user may both better grip a golf club as well as maintain enhanced tactile sensitivities on parts of the otherwise gloved hand.
There are other configuration challenges in prior art golf gloves that hinder those desiring to have a proper, consistent golf swing using a conventional golf grip.
Most conventional golf gloves, for example, have ventilation recesses along the dorsal portion of the digital segments including on the forefinger which of course can be counterproductive and problematic especially when gripping a golf club using the interlocking grip. Conventional golf gloves provide recesses on the proximal phalanx of the forefinger which of course channel perspiration to this area, albeit small amounts. This is problematic because the strong hand's pinkie finger interlocks and resides over the forefinger's proximal phalanx. Intentionally trying to channel moisture to this interlocked area will clearly cause unnecessary slipping between the two interlocked fingers and further hinder the user's ability to perform a unison, coordinated golf swing.
On the other hand, without any recesses on the forefinger segment, moisture will inevitably build up within the forefinger segment, making it very uncomfortable for the user; if, however, the distal phalanx of the forefinger is uncovered, for example, any moisture buildup in the forefinger segment will naturally flow out from the uncovered portion and away from the critical interlocked or overlayed portion.
For the same reasons, recesses along the middle finger's proximal phalanx may be counterproductive as well.
Solving these unrecognized problems, as embodiments of the present invention provides, will go a long way to significantly enhance consistent golf swing control, especially during hotter weather conditions. Some embodiments include a forefinger segment without any moisture management recesses along the proximal phalanx on the forefinger segment and/or along portions of the middle finger segment, where the strong hand's pinkie finger usually rests on the weak hand.
Providing a more strategic moisture management system will create a firmer contact between the fingers of both hands, and therefore a more controlled golf swing.
There is also a long existing need for a device that could offer better hand coordination between a golfer's strong hand and weak hand without significantly diminishing a golfer's ability to adequately grip the golf club. Golfers often have to fight completing a ‘slice.’ When a golfer hits a slice, the golf ball flies to the far outside (far right for a right-handed golfer or far left for a left-handed golfer).
A slice can take place for several reasons. One reason has to do with the dominant hand not moving at the same rate and angle as the weak hand during a golf swing, or not unhinging at the same time. If there is even the slightest separation between the two hands during the golf swing, the club face will not be square at impact; the resulting open face impact will inevitably result in a slice. An ideal location to help determine if there is even slight hand separation resides where the weak hand's middle finger touches the strong hand's pinkie finger. If the golfer is using prior art golf gloves, however, it is extremely difficult to feel if there is any hand separation throughout the golf swing because of the weak hand's middle finger loss of significant tactile sensations by being completely covered by the glove.
Inventing a solution to this problem could, among other things, allow for greater golf swing control and consistency by providing a golfer with significantly enhanced and immediate feedback with a golf swing, and thus create an entirely new market to support a golfer's dominant (strong) hand and weak hand coordination.
Some glove embodiments of the present invention offer an aperture along the weak hand's middle finger such that the skin of the weak hand's middle finger can touch the skin of the strong-hand's pinkie finger, thereby providing immediate and accurate feedback if there was any separation between the user's hands throughout the golf swing and make the proper adjustments. Among the results would be improving ball contact, trajectory and accuracy by minimizing hand separation throughout the golf swing.
The weak hand's middle finger requires a unique blend of grip and sensitivity capabilities. Providing added grip capabilities along the middle finger would allow a user to better maintain control; providing an aperture along the dorsal segment's proximal phalanx of the middle finger would simultaneously allow the user to maintain tactile sensitivities whereby at least a portion of the middle finger's skin would touch the weak hand.
Consequently, there are clear indications that an entirely new market exists for a device that could support a golfer's hand coordination, especially but not limited to those who play golf using the interlocking grip. In particular, there remains an unmet need that would provide multiple benefits, such as better overall grip and more coordination with both hands during the practice or play of golf, and in various other sports activities. The present invention solves the above mentioned problems by, among other things, providing a glove configured for use on the weak hand that can increase grip abilities on areas primarily responsible for the gripping a golf club, while allowing portions of the other fingers to be uncovered and able to maintain necessary feeling capabilities.